965: Compost Innovations: Ed Williams on Creating Living Soil"

In This Podcast: Edmund Williams returns to discuss the LEHR Garden system and a breakthrough soil product emerging from it: LEHR Soil Amplifier. By combining ecological soil biology with engineered water flow, the LEHR system grows plants in primarily woody materials while composting beneath living roots. The resulting extracted soil behaves as a powerful biostimulant, dramatically improving plant growth, resilience, and heat tolerance. This episode explores living soil, stable carbon, and how feeding soil organisms transforms plant health.

Our Guest: Edmund is a civil engineer and innovator in the urban and sustainable agriculture arena. He has been working with various municipalities and nonprofits to transform the ways our society feeds itself. The Lear Garden was designed to be a low maintenance system using biology as a part of the automation. To do this, Edmond created a compost bin as the core technology, and like any compost bin, it needs to be emptied periodically, The finished compost that comes out is unlike anything on the market having some very surprising and beneficial properties.

Key Topics

• LEHR Garden (Linking Ecosystem and Hardware for Regeneration)
• LEHR Soil Amplifier
• Biostimulants in agriculture
• Living soil biology
• Stable soil carbon
• Glomalin and mycorrhizal fungi
• Biochar as nutrient buffer
• Urban waste stream composting
• Flood-and-drain raised bed systems
• Heat resilience in desert gardening
• Soil food web
• Tall pot tree propagation method

What makes a LEHR Garden different from hydroponics or permaculture alone?

It integrates both ecology and hardware, using a raised flood-and-drain system filled mostly with wood chips and organic waste, allowing plants to grow in living soil biology rather than inert media.

Why does the garden soil need to be removed and reset?

As woody materials break down, water flow slows, causing anaerobic conditions. Removing and resetting the soil restores oxygen flow and system performance.

What is LEHR Soil Amplifier?

It is the sifted, biologically rich soil produced inside the system, containing earthworm castings, biochar, microbial life, and multiple known biostimulant compounds.

How is this different from regular compost?

Unlike compost made separately, this material forms beneath living roots, encouraging creation of stable soil carbon compounds such as glomalin, which are critical to true topsoil structure.

How much is needed to see results?

Very small amounts are effective — about one gallon can treat roughly 1,000 square feet of garden space.

What plant responses have been observed?

Reports include greener lawns, higher vegetable productivity, improved pest and disease resistance, thicker rose petals, and rapid recovery of stressed trees.

Can it improve heat tolerance?

Gardeners observed lush summer growth during record heat, with plants surviving and producing through extreme desert temperatures.

What is the underlying mechanism?

The product stimulates soil biology, increases mycorrhizal activity, provides mineral buffering through biochar, and enhances nutrient cycling.

Episode Highlights

• LEHR stands for Linking Ecosystem and Hardware for Regeneration
• Gardens grow food in mostly wood chips enriched by composting beneath roots
• Soil removal became the “problem that was the solution”
• Sifted soil behaves as a high-density biological stimulant
• Stable soil carbon forms directly through plant–fungal interactions
• One gallon treats approximately 1,000 square feet
• Gardeners report dramatic improvements during extreme heat
• Trees in tall pots showed accelerated growth using the amplifier

Calls to Action & Resources

LEHR Garden System — https://lehrgarden.com

Contact Edmund Williams — mailto:info@lehrgarden.com

For Episode Show Notes Visit — UrbanFarm.org/SoilAmplifier

Need a little bit of advice or just a feedback on your design for your yard or garden?

The Urban Farm Team is offering consults over the phone or zoom. Get the benefits of a personalized garden and yard space analysis without the cost of trip charges.

You can chat with Greg, Janis or Ray to get permaculture based feedback.

Click HERE to learn more!

*Disclosure: Some of the links in our podcast show notes and blog posts are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase, we will earn a nominal commission at no cost to you. We offer links to items recommended by our podcast guests and guest writers as a service to our audience and these items are not selected because of the commission we receive from your purchases. We know the decision is yours, and whether you decide to buy something is completely up to you.